Divided
by Trapped In Narnia
Summary: I'm not just Divergent. I am Divided. Like my parents. Like my world. Something big is happening, and they all think that Tris is the center of it. But they're wrong. I am. (OC but will play into main storyline soon!)
1. Chapter 1

Divided

I'm not just Divergent. I am Divided. Like my parents. Like my world. Something big is happening, and they all think that Tris is the center of it. But they're wrong. I am.

Chapter 1

I pull the brush slowly through my long dark reddish hair. It's soft against my head. I've always loved my hair and used to fall asleep when my mother brushed it at night, singing softly and telling me stories. My favorites were always her least favorites; the ones about my father. They grew up together in Amity, and fell in love. He was tall and handsome, with brown hair and dark green eyes, the same as mine. They were quiet and peaceful, but they knew they only wanted the best for each other. He would take her to beautiful places in the forest, so different it felt like another world. They were in love, and things happened past what society says they were supposed to, and when she slit her palm over the Amity bowl, she carried me inside of her.

She waited for him to join her, but he never did. When my father shed his blood, he spilled it over glass and joined the Candor. In the dead silence of the Choosing Ceremony my mother's sobs seemed to echo off the walls. The discord almost made her fail Amity initiation, but she pulled through. It wasn't hard for us to make a life there. After all, they're good and kind people. She made friends that stayed with her every step of the way, friends that still visit almost every day.

Though my mother and my 'Aunts' have been gentle towards me my whole life, something inside me has always told me that something is missing. A lot of things actually…

I gaze into my own green eyes in the mirror and sigh. Today's the day. Today they test us all and tell us where we belong. After today I can finally stop waking up every morning and looking in the mirror wondering who looks back at me. Today I'll finally know who I am.

I grab my green jacket and cover my shoulders, swiping my bag on my way out the door. Another day rises and I'm here to greet it. The long sweeping grass fields seem to glow in the sunrise. Adjusting my bag on my shoulder, I take a deep breath of crisp morning air before starting the journey to school. The pebbles of the trails crunch beneath my feet at every step and I marvel at the sound. I will never get tired of the beauty that lies in every inch of Amity. Fog swirls through my mother's apple orchard. They're in bloom now, and dew coats the buds, glittering in the morning light.

The shade traces patterns onto the world around me as I enter the woods surrounding my school and I begin to run, as I do every morning. There's something freeing about it, feeling my hair whip in the wind, stinging my shoulders. Wind rushing past me, limbs pulling in effort, I feel alive. Roots and undergrowth try to make me fail, try to slow me down or make me fall, but I won't let them. These woods are mine. The world is mine.

I'm gasping by the time I make it to the cafeteria, lungs on fire and throat raw. I collapse next to Daisy and Rachelle, gulping down the bottle of water that they had for me. They didn't even have to ask that I'd need one. They just knew me that well.

Katie sat across from me, dark hair hiding her face as she munched on an apple while deeply engrossed in a book, as she nearly always was. She didn't even have to look up as she said, "Hey Tara. Have a nice run?"

I smirk at her. "Always."

Daisy isn't her normal self. Her hair is pulled up into a high ponytail instead of wearing it in waves as she usually did, and that in itself was suspicious. She also wasn't talking, which normally only happened when she was sleeping or eating. Her blue eyes flicked this way and that. "Daisy…" I murmured softly, worried about her. She still wouldn't look at me. "Daisy!" Finally she met my eyes. I placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing softly. "It'll be okay. There's no need to be nervous. Whatever happens will happen if it's meant to be. Besides you know that you can always pick where you want to end up. The test is just a suggestion."

"But what if I can't decide? What if the test is wrong?"

I might have laughed if it was any other situation. "The test is instinctual. It's more of a personality test than anything." Besides, whoever heard of the test being wrong? You either are something or you aren't, it's as simple as that.

Rachelle snorts, her eyes glistening. "I don't know _what_ you're so freaked out about, Day. I'm excited! I want to go right _now_! I want to know what I am, who I am, and I want to know ASAP." I knew that feeling.

As I rebraided my hair, I couldn't help but wonder if my father's aptitude test had been what made him leave us. I also wondered if his ideals could be transferred to me just by blood, or did I have to be around him to have Candor in me? Does it matter that he transferred after I was conceived? What if I did turn out to have an aptitude for Candor?

Maybe I did. I was raised thinking lying was high treason against a loved one and the quickest way to get someone to hate you. One lie leads to another, and soon the whole thing snowballs into one massive lie that's so big that people don't know how to trust you anymore. Trust is the one of the most treasured things in the world anyone can give another person.

Betrayal is the second worst feeling in the world to me. Like everything you thought was a lie. Like everything you built your world on was nothing. It's second only to guilt. Having to look someone in the eyes and see the pain there and know that not only can you do nothing to help, but you were the one who put it there… Just thinking about it is enough to stir every memory of every time, intentional or not, that I've hurt someone like that and it hurts me too.

Empathy; that's what mother always called it. The way my heart pulls to shreds when I see her or my friends crying. The way I find laughter contagious. The way I always want to make them smile in any way that I can. We do this, she says, as an act of kindness towards the people we love, in the same way that I would never lie to them, not even over something small. I tell everybody the truth, or half-truths when I'm absolutely forced to. Does that make me Candor?

"Tara Callaway?" a short woman with spiky hair calls out.

I guess we'd find out.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thank you so so so so so sooooo much for reading! You have no idea how much it means to me, especially considering I'm using an OC and there are many other stories like that you could have read but you chose mine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Special thanks to Star197, Fanofdivergent, cityofbones1234, and vampirevampirevampire for all the amazing reviews, follows, and even favorites! Your kind reviews inspire me to keep writing and every time I see one it makes me want to sit down and write even more for you. So here it is, the long awaited update. I realize that it's been a while, but in my defense, this chapter is more than three times longer than the first. Don't get used to that though, I just couldn't bear to split up the simulation. Speaking of which, without further adue (- how do you spell that correctly?), here's Chapter 2.**

Chapter 2

I follow the woman back through a series of hallways and into an empty classroom, science by the looks of it. She gestures to an empty chair reclining in the center of the room. "Have a seat," she calls over her shoulder. It's a command, not a request.

Nervousness prickles my skin as I ease into the chair. I'm really not quite sure what it is that I'm nervous about, but everything about this screams wrong. Even as she positions the electrodes on my temples, I have to fight the immediate urge to ask her to take them off. I won't do it. I won't back out now, not when I'm so close to understanding who… or what I am.

The woman leans over me, her voice kind but no smile on her face. "The aptitude test is run by a simulation in your brain. You'll feel like it's a dream and you're really in those situations, but you're not. I'm controlling the whole thing from right here to record your answers and put the data in the data log. Got it?" I nod quickly. "Good. Now drink this."

She hands me a small vial of questionable clear liquid. I slosh it around a little to get an idea of consistency and even sniff it. It doesn't have any particular smell, so I was clueless. I look at her bizarrely. "What is it?"

Her eyes narrow. "Look, just drink it! Just act on your first impulse and see where it gets you. Don't worry about results. Ready?"

I nod again, downing the vial and closing my eyes. "Let's do this."

The simulation starts and I'm standing outside a house in Amity that I've never seen before. It's small and homey, or would be if it weren't for the flames consuming the inside and pouring out through the windows. By first reaction, I cringe away from my proximity to the flames. Even though I've never felt this way before, I'm suddenly consumed by a crushing fear of fire. Every instinct screams at me to get away.

I'm about to run when I hear a woman's cry from inside the building. She's screaming in terror, and I turn. Tears streaking down my face from the fire reaching out to me, I race to the door. I have to save her. It's what I would hope that she would do for me. Besides, what kind of a person could just let another person burn to death?

I try the door, but it's locked. A frustrated huff leaves me. I know I don't have much time, but as I begin to circle the buildings, I realize that most of the windows are ringed with sharp shards of broken glass and practically leaking fire. I can't be wasting time like this! The woman's screams are getting softer, definitely not a good sign.

I blink. Wait a minute. There is a second story window that looks fully in tact. It's barely glowing too. Now how to get to it… The tree! There's a tree next to the house, with branches I can climb up. Has that been there the whole time? Of course it has they can't change the simulation while I'm in it. I was just to panicked to notice it.

I jump for the nearest branch, grabbing it and pulling myself up. I've been climbing trees since I was tall enough to reach a branch, so this part is a breeze to me. I climb up the tree as if I were a monkey and quickly reach the branch closest to the top window. I frown. There's still a huge gap between the thick branch and the window, and the small closer ones couldn't support me even if I was a squirrel. The woman's screams suddenly cut off. No! Am I too late?

Taking a deep breath and wiping off my tears, I throw myself off the branch at the window. I catch the ledge just above it and sweep my legs to kick the glass in. Shards fly inwards, scraping my arms and face, but I don't let it slow me down. I know the stairs leading down to the flames could collapse at any minute, but I fly down them anyways. The smoke consumes everything and burns my eyes but I can't afford to care. "Ma'am!" I cry out, searching frantically anywhere for the woman. "Can anybody hear me?!"

"Tara?" A small voice calls me from the side of the window. Daisy is slowly crawling towards the window, tears in her eyes. "Tara, help me!" She's scared and her lungs are probably scorched and painful with each breath like mine are, but I know Daisy's scream and it wasn't the one I'd been hearing. Another woman needs me, and she's in trouble.

"TARA!" Daisy cries as I search in the other direction. My heart breaks hearing Daisy cry like that, a girl I've known since we were four years old. She'll be okay, I tell myself. She's always been strong, and she is strong enough to get to the window on her own. Focus on the one who needs you most, then go back for Daisy. That woman is dying. I just pray that my body can make it long enough to get to both of them.

There's a good chance she's already dead. I know that, but I have to keep trying. I cry out again and listen. God, God, please don't let me lose her… A small whimper guides me towards the wall, where the woman is collapsed as if trying to get to one of the broken windows. "Hold on!" I cry, rushing to help her up.

She's completely unconscious, but luckily the door isn't too far away. I've never had to lift anything- or should I say anyone- this heavy before and I'm not quite sure how to carry her. Is it easier to carry her bridal style or is it disrespectful to drag her or…?

At this point, I can't afford to worry about respecting her. I'm trying to save her life. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure my path is clear, I wrap my arms around the woman's chest and drag her out the door. I barely have us far enough away from the cloud of burning smoke to breathe when I collapse next to the woman, gasping like I'd never tasted oxygen before. A roll of nausea threatens to gag me, but I wouldn't let it. Not now, when I have to make sure the woman is okay.

Pushing myself onto my elbows, I crawl over to her and watch her chest for signs of breathing. Nothing. Crap crap crap! Um, let's see I remember in school they taught us how to give mouth to mouth resuscitation to get a person breathing, but that was years ago. Let's see, tilt the head back, cover the nostrils… I place my mouth until its covering the woman's breathing two quick large breaths into her. I lean back, releasing her nose as my breath sweeps out of her. For a second nothing happens and I worry I'm going to have to repeat the process, until her eyes fly open and she begins to cough. She's coughing and I can barely breath, but she is alive, and so am I.

Other people have come to our aide by now, the Amity surrounding us and asking a million questions that I can't focus on. "Daisy," I cough, chocking on the ashes that seem to coat my throat and lungs. Pain sears with each time I try to say it, but I have to know she's okay. "Where's Daisy?" I sit up, glancing around for my best friend.

I find her laying not too far away, breathing desperate heavy breaths but gazing steadily up at the sky like we used to do when we were kids. She's okay. A massive weight lifts off of my chest. If anything had happened to her… I don't know what I would have done. "Daisy?" I whisper, kneeling next to her.

Her gaze tears from the clouds to meet mine. A million emotions flash through them, some only for seconds like relief or love, but betrayal and oddly…guilt seem to overpower the rest. But that doesn't make sense. None of it does. Why would Daisy feel guilty? She isn't the one who almost left her best friend to die in a burning building! She shouldn't-

"I did it, Tara," she murmurs brokenly, looking away.

At first I think I must have misheard her. "Did what?"

"I started the fire…" she mumbles. And maybe I was seeing things but I could have sworn I saw her smirk.

I almost shriek, "YOU _WHAT_?!"

She leaps up and claps a hand over my mouth, blue eyes boring into green. "Shhhh! Tara! You can't tell anyone! It was an accident!" She's desperate, but there's something off. A glint in her eyes that I've never seen before. Everything in my gut screams wrong wrong wrong…

"Tara." A man I've never seen before grabs my arm and pulls me to the side. He's firm and demanding, but there's gentleness to his voice… A kind of defensive tone that both calms me and draws a feeling of longing that I've never felt before. Is this how a father must sound? "I need you to tell me what happened, and I don't want any crap. I want the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Can you do that?"

The way he says it doesn't make it sound like a question. I nod because I feel like I have to. "Good. Now tell me quickly, what's the story?"

I falter. Daisy is a good person. She'd never hurt anybody on purpose. Even when she was pissed it'd take every ounce of anger in her just to even hit another person, but to burn down a house? She said it was an accident, so it was an accident and that was that. I couldn't rat her out and send her to prison over an accident.

But that smirk… Something was off about Daisy, and I know that it's the right thing to do. If he'd understand that it was an accident, then they wouldn't take her away. They can't. "There was an accident…" I shift my weight, swallowing hard. "She didn't mean to."

"Who? Come on, lady, we don't have all day."

"Daisy, but it wasn't her fault! I know her she'd never hurt anyone! Please, you have to believe me!" But he had already turned away as I say that, Dauntless guards grabbing Daisy. "No! No, stop, it's not her fault! Please!"

Then it all swirls and blurs away, the colors running together and creating new ones that begin to sharpen into focus. Daisy and the Dauntless guards are gone now, replaced by the dark grey of pavement and shops at twilight. It's been raining, and the only color that stands out is the orange glow of the streetlights reflected back in the cool mist. I hurry down the street aimlessly. Where am I supposed to go?

My thoughts wander as I pass a closed up flower shop, a powerful hose for watering the plants coiled on the ground beside some dead potted plants that probably needed to be thrown out. As the daughter of a florist, I knew that powerful of a hose was probably what killed them in the first place. Such a shame amaryllis really are pretty-

I'm torn from my thoughts by a loud crack around the corner of the shop. As I round the corner I see two young guys, probably only a few years older than myself, yelling at each other. A crowd of people has formed around them, their faces ranging from worried to annoyed to aggravated. I'm just reaching the crowd when the blonde boy lashes out, punching the dark haired one in the jaw. He falls back, his elbow crashing into a little boy standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. A crack splits the air as the child's head smacks the pavement, closely followed by the boy landing on top of him, but he's back and lunging at the blonde's throat in three seconds flat.

If these boys weren't in Dauntless already, I hoped to God that they'd fail initiation. Surely even the reckless don't permit harm to children. Neither of them even glanced in the boy's direction! What if he was seriously hurt because of them? "HEY!" I yell at them, the crowd stepping away from me as I put myself in their line of fire. Not that it mattered, the guys just kept at it, brawling in the street. "HEY!" I try again. Nothing.

Why are boys so irrational? Clearly what they're doing is wrong. I mean, what could be so important that you'd literally hurt innocent people to get it? What could be so important to hurt another person like that, especially out in public? Arguments are private things to be settled quietly between two people and two people alone. It's nobody else's business, so why be so brash about it? Then again, the Dauntless are always brash about everything.

Well, if they are going to insist on using force to solve their problems (which I'd like to point out that it hardly ever does), then force is the only thing they'll listen to. I leap between them and shove the dark haired one back with my elbow, knowing it's the strongest part of the human body. He stumbles back a few steps, but the blonde's kick hits me directly in the stomach. Pain wraps my insides into knots as the breath rushes out of me. I fall to my knees, gasping for breath. "Stop," I cough, leaning against the wall to get back on my feet. I push myself back in front of the brown haired boy, bracing for the punch that I knew was coming.

Suddenly there's an arm pulling backwards on my shoulders, and then I'm behind the boy against the wall. Strangely enough he's not pinning me there. It's almost like he's…sheltering me. "Get out of here," he pants over his shoulder, his eyes glued to the blonde who is watching us with wild eyes, oddly stopped for the moment. "You'll just get hurt."

"You have to stop fighting! Can't you see what it's doing to all these people? You hurt an innocent child!" I insist, but stay behind him.

He turns now slightly to face me, his gaze finally tearing away from the blonde. "You don't get it. You're just some stupid Amity girl, what would you know? The world's not all rainbows and butterflies and orchards. It's not peaceful. It's not smart, and it's certainly not honest. We all want to _be_ something. We all want _something_. We all have an aspect of selfishness to us. So where does that leave us? Punching each other for no reason and jumping off of moving trains? Maybe. Maybe some of us don't have another choice. But then I look at people like _him_," he spits blood from his mouth, "and I think maybe we have something we're fighting for. He has killed people, Tara. He'll kill you as soon as he gets the chance. Ridding the world of him is a favor to everyone. So get the hell out of here, and you're welcome."

He shoves me back into the crowd, and I just stay there for a moment, dazed. What just happened? Is what he said true? It's true that not everybody is honest, but isn't it our duty to be honest in hope of making the world a more peaceful place? Maybe if people got along more we'd have a lot less people like Blondie over here. Maybe if people were smarter, they could figure out how to avoid all this senselessness.

But was the dark-haired boy right in fighting? Just a few minutes ago I'd been ready to hurt him just to get him away from the blonde, but now I know he was just acting in defense. In _my_ defense, no less. Is it right to kill a murderer? Is it worth taking a life to save many? No, of course not, violence in any form is senseless and useless… Maybe if we talked to the blonde we could get him to see reason… What if he didn't though? What do you do with people who refuse to compromise or listen?

I blink. This whole time I've been lost in my own little world their fighting has continued. I didn't even realize how bad it had gotten! The blonde had pulled a knife out of nowhere and was pinning the other to the wall. Dark-hair had a large bruise rising on the side of his head in a very dangerous spot. Blows to the temple weren't easily recovered from, and combined with multiple bleeding slices in his skin and the fact that the blonde was now choking him made his breathing catch and his eyes flicker.

He doesn't have much time. I look around quickly searching for something, anything, that could help me distract the blonde. I couldn't just let someone who had defended me die at the hands of a murderer! My gaze catches on the powerful hose, coiled near my feet. I grab it, the tiniest of smirks on my lips. Yes, this would do quite nicely.

I whip around and shove through the crowd. "Hey Blondie!" I call and he looks up just for a moment. That's all I need. "Pick on someone your own size!" I may be small, but I'm smart. People need to remember that.

I squeeze the hose in my hand, setting it on the highest possible setting and letting the water fly from my hands. The sheer force of it knocks the boy away, and the other falls to the ground gasping. I run to him and help him up. He's weak, but standing. I smile at him and say, "You're sure you can do this on your own?"

He looks at me through dripping wet hair. "Shut up." I laugh.

I turn now to the crowd, raising my voice. "This boy," I point to the blonde who is getting to his feet, "is a murderer, a liar, and a cheat! He does not deserve the comfort of a faction or a family! Who will help us return him to his compound where he may face the Dauntless courts and answer for his actions?"

A few volunteers began to hesitantly step forward as the blonde laughed darkly. "You think you're so high and mighty. Just because you come from a peaceful faction you think you know the answers to all the world's problems. It's almost cute how you think you know anything! You don't even know a liar when you see one! You're such a hypocrite, calling me a liar when really it's him who's the liar! I've never killed anyone, you twit! I've never done anything! He's the one who came after_ me_, and all because I'm highest in my class of initiates! Face the facts, sweetheart! He lied to you!"

I glance over at the dark-haired boy beside me, holding his head and cringing in pain, then back to the sneering blonde boy. Now I've always been a pretty good judge of character, and while it was possible that either one of them could be lying to me, what reason would the blonde have for attacking him in the first place, with a knife no less. I saw it start; I know that that's what happened. I may not be Erudite, but I'm not stupid. It's possible, but the feeling in my gut is usually right.

I don't voice my decision, instead stepping protectively in front of the dark haired boy. The blonde's sneer slipped right off his face and he backed away into the shadows calling, "You'll regret this, I swear!"

_Wow._ How cliché can you get? You'd think with as much time as they put into these simulations they could think of something a little more original.

My vision blurs again and I'm thinking the simulation is going to take me somewhere else, but everything just goes black. When I open my eyes, my vision is still blurry, but I can tell I'm back in the testing room. I glance around me, feeling very confused and trying to sit up, but feeling like I'm made of lead. Is this reaction normal? "Wassronng?" I slur, fighting my muscles to keep myself sitting up. Aren't the simulations usually longer than this, with more scenarios? Don't you usually just wake up and go home? Why was I feeling like this? A million questions raced into my head at once, blocking out any coherent thoughts temporarily. So when the woman appeared in front of me hazily saying tersely, "Come with me," I didn't question. I just slid off the chair and tried to follow her.

Keyword here being 'tried'. The minute I attempt to put weight onto my feet I almost fall forward, gravity's strength increasing ten fold. With an extremely frustrated sigh, the woman wraps an arm around me and half-supports, half-drags me down the hallway and into another room. It's hard to say where. It's kind of all a blur to me. The next thing I know I'm sort of thrown onto a couch and the woman is ranting to five other people in the room. At first all I can picture is a rainbow of people. Colors with voices. Then I start focusing on what the colors are saying and I begin to realize something is terribly, terribly wrong.


End file.
